Volume 73, Issue 2

Enrollments in publicly funded pre-kindergarten (pre-K) programs are on the rise in the United States with bi-partisan support for universal pre-K increasing. Hypothetically, pre-K students should be able to access the school library and receive services and instruction from the school librarian. However, it is unclear if school librarians have either the leverage to serve these pre-K students or the necessary guidance to do so. This document analysis study involved a systematic review of school librarian certification documents, school library standards, and early childhood standards for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Findings reveal uneven justification for pre-K student services and programming through school libraries. School librarians are certified to serve pre-K students in approximately half of the states, but few states have school library standards for pre-K, leaving school librarians with little direction about how best to instruct them. Implications for practice, policy, and research are discussed.

Public libraries (PLs) aim to meet the information needs of their local communities and play a vital role in the development of a nation. Comprehensive published literature is available on PLs in Pakistan and could explore the challenges encountered by these PLs in the country through literature review. Thus, to fill this gap in existing literature, a review of literature was conducted to explore the status, issues, and perspectives of the PLs in Pakistan since its partition in 1947. The researchers reviewed library and information science (LIS) literature published on the subject topics. Various electronic data sources were searched such as Taylor and Francis, Emerald Insight, EBSCOhost, Science Direct, Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA), Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA), and Google Scholar. Similarly, the profiles of prominent Pakistani LIS scholars were also consulted for the said purpose. A search string was formulated to get precise results with some limitations on extracting required data. Peer-reviewed studies published from 1947 to 2021 in the English language were included in present study, which extracted 74 citations. After deleting duplicates from titles and abstracts, a full-text assessment was done. Finally, 27 studies were included, which matched the search criteria and explored various issues of the PLs in Pakistan. The findings of this study reveal that PLs in Pakistan are facing several challenges such as nonexistence of appropriate planning, absence of library legislation, lack of ICT application in libraries, absence of policy regarding public relations and publicity (PRP) of library resources and services. Other issues are lack of proper service structure for LIS professionals, as a deficiency in providing proper LIS continuing education and training opportunities to LIS professionals, insufficient human resources, the bureaucratic administrative structure of public libraries, shortage of sufficient funds and financial independence. The highlighted issues and challenges may serve as a guide for public library policy and decision-makers in reforming their present policies, or in articulating a modern public library system in Pakistan. This study suggests several recommendations which would help the competent authorities and policymakers to transform the PLs in Pakistan from neglected to indispensable community learning and information resource centers. This is a first study of its kind in Pakistan, and it is hoped that the findings will serve as a springboard for future research in the LIS field and contribute to the literature on the PLs in Pakistan.

The study aimed to determine the perceptions and views of Iranian editors about the quality of journals, articles, the responsibilities of the editorial team, review and the review process, copyright and intellectual property, consequences of open access (OA), and influential factors in the scientific life cycle of a journal. The study adopted a qualitative approach using interviews. Respondents included 13 editors of journals. Purposive and snowball sampling methods were used for the interview. The results showed that the editor’s main tasks were to supervise the reviewers’ performance, initially control the article, and send it to the reviewers. Participants believed that compliance with professional standards was the main factor influencing the scientific quality of publications. Their understanding of the ethical codes includes impartiality and confidentiality in evaluation and publication. In light of the fact that reviewers often perform superficial reviews, the editors viewed them as poor-quality. They stated that intellectual property is not valued and observed in many cases. Some participants mentioned the negative consequences of open access (OA). However, they think OA bears more positive than adverse outcomes. Observance of these factors is ultimately essential for the survival of a scientific journal.

Qualitative analytical methods are important in many academic fields, including informatics. Although qualitative content analysis (QCA) is used for text, a coding method for a solo researcher has rarely been discussed. This work suggests a systematic QCA process for single coding based on the inductive-dominant approach. We developed a single coding method with a practical example based on an 11-step process: (1) decide research questions and purposes, (2) collect texts for analysis, (3) determine the unit of analysis, (4) engage in partial inductive coding of the target texts, (5) analyze frequent words found in the text, (6) use these frequent words and inductive coding to create a temporary coding schema, (7) collaborate with multiple experts or researchers to verify the temporary coding schema, (8) code the entire text based on the coding schema, (9) after a certain period, re-code the text based on the coding schema to calculate the intra-rater reliability, (10) confirm the final version of the coding schema, and (11) develop categories through code abstraction. Our process is suitable for a single researcher and for analyzing various text types qualitatively from a specific and consistent perspective. This study provides an exploratory foundation for examining the single coding process.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the service quality of Pakistani university libraries in the context of the user satisfaction. A quantitative survey was conducted to collect data from postgraduate students. The multi-dimensional modified SERVQUAL structured questionnaire consisting of 23 statements was used as a data collection instrument. The results revealed that users were satisfied with the “Empathy” dimension, showing that users were satisfied with the behavior of library staff and the friendly environment between the users and the library personnel. However, there was a gap in the expected service quality and perceived service quality in the four dimensions of SERVQUAL (“Tangible,” “Reliability,” “Responsiveness,” and “Assurance”). The findings of the study would support university library professionals to improve web-based library services. The study would be a useful addition to the body of knowledge.

The aim of this study was to conduct a comprehensive literature review of the dimensions of open science in research processes. A total of four databases and snowball searching were used for the comprehensive literature review during 2011–2020; then, we were able to find 98 studies based on the inclusion criteria. Also, we used thematic method to review the relevant studies and identified three categories of dimensions in the research process, namely (1) the publication and sharing category including open access, open data, transparency and reproducibility, citizen science, and crowd sourcing; (2) the infrastructure and cultural category including open infrastructure, open education, open tools, budget mechanism, open culture, and communication; and (3) governance and evaluation including policies, governance, and the ethical principles associated with open science. Open science emphasizes the efforts to open and make the scientific research process more inclusive so as to engage the inside and outside actors in the research process.